Sunday, October 31, 2010

Take a close look at how the last two presidents governed .Bill Clinton actually embraced traditional republican views ; free trade,NAFTA,welfare reform,balanced budget.He abandoned health care reform when he saw the voters didn't want it.

Bush governed more along traditional democratic lines,huge tax and spend [without the taxes],huge deficits,big tax cuts for the middle and lower class, big social programs and a new, massive, unfunded ,very costly add on to medicare. He even installed a tariff on some imported steel as a payback to West Virginia but it cost jobs here and later rescinded it.

I just voted and I voted for the candidate not the party. For our congressman and senator I went to their web sites and read their positions on the issues giving higher preference to the ones with the least amount of political experience. Result one R vote , one D vote. So if you insist on voting strictly by party, you may get the opposite of what you were expecting.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Have you ever been around a chicken when it lays an egg? It is indeed a major event, at least if you are a chicken. The hen lays an egg then gets up and struts herself around the coop. She then gets up on the highest perch in the coop,sometimes even in the entrance of the coop, and proudly announces to the world that she has indeed produced the best egg ever. She stands tall and lets out a loud series of cackles and clucks and crows proclaiming that her egg is the best ever, full of nutrition and taste for all to enjoy. After about 5 minutes of bragging, she forgets the egg and goes on about her business of eating in preparation for the next.

We Americans are a compassionate people, that is one reason we have such a great country.But one must wonder about our government. To appease the voters and protect their political butts they will not make the tough choices that must be made now to protect our future. We simply can not continue this huge deficit because it will put such a burden on the future taxpayers they will be crushed and there is no compassion in being so unfair to them.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

My opponent raided social security to pay for xxx - Social security has been raided since LBJ. All social security goes into general funds.

My opponent will cut your social security - We have no choice Its a ponzi scheme ready to collapse.

My opponent voted for the largest deficit in history - They all did,its that or shut down the government.

My opponent voted to ship jobs to China - There was no such bill.If true, then why haven't they voted to bring them back?

My opponent voted for tax loopholes for corporations that ship jobs off shore - No such bill existed or exists today.

I will create American jobs. - Congress can not create jobs, recent events prove this.Congress can create an environment that encourages job growth but has done the opposite.

I will stop wasteful spending - Yea sure. Congress has promised this for years and it just gets worse.

My opponent voted to bail out wall street - The TARP bill was necessary to prevent financial collapse. Most of the money went to FANNIE and FREDDY ,and a lot more will. The biggest recipient of tax payer dollars to two institutions run by congress. Actual wall street banks have repaid the money, FANNIE and FREDDY will not ,we pay.

My opponent gave big tax breaks to the rich - Every income group got a tax break the biggest percentage reductions went to the lower groups.

Remember the claim by Al Gore that he invented the internet? Now senator Reid has pronounced that he alone saved the world from financial collapse. Can you believe this crap? If he has so much power then why can he not fix the current economic mess that he helped create?

Friday, October 22, 2010

Our politicians want us to believe that they want to reduce the deficit.We all know that it is critical to our economic future but when the tough times arrive to actually do something they all run for cover.Both parties are equally guilty.
Case in point. Defense secretary Gates has been charged with a plan to reduce his budget by 100 billion dollars which is significant.His first target, to close the Joint Forces Command in Norfork Va. as it is not critical and is duplicated elsewhere.This closure would save 240 million dollars a year and put 6000 people out of work.So then the Virginia congressmen and senators ,members of both parties , mount a protest to stop the closure claiming the base is critical to defense, but of course we all know it is only critical to their own jobs.They are in favor of reduced expenses, but not in their district.
And here is another example of politicians protecting their jobs at our own expense.The Army needed to increase their air lift capacity and ordered 180 C-17 airplanes which were delivered by 2007 at which time the army closed the order because they had sufficient capacity and needed the funds elsewhere. Yep,you guessed it.Congress decided the army needed more airplanes and continued the contract through 2010 for another 10 billion dollars.
The congress and senate ,from both parties,are acting only in their own interests and not ours.Who is better positioned to manage the military budget,congress or the Sec. of Defense.? If we want a secure future this crap has got to stop and the only answer I have for how to do so is term limits. I think the army should use those extra planes to airlift congress and the senate to a remote island and leave them there.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Sorry for the bad news but we are bankrupt,its just not been made official. Our current federal debt is 14 trillion.That works out to $150000 per tax filer who actually pays taxes. The median family net worth is $93000 .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_in_the_United_States

Monday, October 18, 2010

THE NUMBERS TELL THE STORY Over my lifetime of work I paid $53000 into ss.When I start collecting benefits i am to get $1800 per month income. Not accounting for inflation, I will Get back what I paid in after 2.5 years. If I live for 20 more years that means I get back $400000 more than I put in.Good deal for me but not fair to the poor young people of the future.This means that it will take about 6 poor kids making $60000 per year just to cover my benefits, not including medicare. { actually 3 if employer contributions are included}. I am ashamed to burden the future with this It is not fair at all.killarneytim.blogspot.com

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Remember the days when Japan was the economic engine that we envied? In the last 5 years Japan's economic growth has averaged just less than zero.All attempts to boost economic growth have failed.In the mid 1980's Japan had a real estate bubble and in the last 30 years economic growth has averaged just one half percent.Sound familiar?
So why has the second or third largest economy in the world been stuck with no economic growth? The national debt in Japan is close to 200% of the economy, ours right now is 94% and rapidly increasing.
Lesson learned. We will be stuck with no growth for years unless we get our debt under control right now. The longer we wait, the worse it will be. No politician ,in office or running for office has a serious plan to do so.It will be painful for everyone and we all have to sacrifice. If not our future looks grim . http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_debt_chart.html#copypaste

Saturday, October 16, 2010

During a previous election year we had an issue on the ballot asking for approval to pass a law to make it illegal for placing indoor furniture outdoors. It did not pass.
This year we have a proposed new law to make it so that a convicted felon can not hold the office of sherif. probably a tight vote.

Friday, October 15, 2010

We spend about 700 billion dollars a year on our defense budget and this represents about 45% of discretionary spending and thus becomes the big target in seeking to reduce our deficit. We can not go back to the Carter era and cripple defense.My cousin was an anti sub patrol plane pilot, and at the height of the cold war, half of the planes on his carrier could not carry weapons due to a lack of spare parts.

Defense secretary Gates is working on getting costs down but his idea of cost reduction is a 1% budget increase next year.This wont work.We need to seriously rethink our position and make some real changes.

We currently have around 150000 military personnel and civilian employees deployed outside this country,not including the two war zones.Most of these deployments and bases are left overs from old wars.

Japan 45000

S. Korea 30000

Germany 60000

The cold war threat is history,why do we need these troops there? I am hard pressed to come up with a good justification.Yes I know N. Korea is a real threat but will our presence in S. Korea deter them or will it be our missiles?S.Korea and Japan really do not want us there and our presence props up their defenses at our expense and they have the economic means to take care of their own needs.

Our presence in Europe, mainly Germany was intended to confront the Russian tanks streaming across the plains of Europe.That threat is gone.Most of their tanks are likely no longer operational yet we spend fortunes in Germany and for what reason?

In my opinion our biggest waste is the 10500 troops we have in Kuwait. They are there to protect Saudi Arabia from another invasion from Iraq.Saudi does not want them in there country because we insult their culture so we put them in Kuwait.Does not seem to be very justifiable since Sadam is dead and what is left of his military could be defeated by a well armed boy scout troop.Yet we spend big bucks to make a country, who does not like us, feel safer.

And of course there are the 56000 troops in Iraq and 94000 in Afghanistan.{later}

I think one reason we have not reduced these very costly troop deployments is that it represents huge change in our old policies but its time now to do something , we can no longer afford it.Another resistance to this change is the power of the generals. These changes will put them out of work and I believe they spend too much time justifying the importance of their jobs than they do protecting the economic security of our country.

Our national debt is approaching 14 trillion dollars. Its pretty hard to get a feeling of just how big this number really is so lets put it on a personal basis. There were 136 million individual tax returns filed last year but 43 million returns paid no tax.So the remaining 93 million tax returns are on the line to pay off this debt which is financed by treasury bills and notes and bonds. Do the math and if you filed a return and paid taxes then you are in debt for $150000.Surprise.
There is good news and bad. This does not include interest on that debt and we dont have to pay it all this year. Assume we have an average maturity of 15 years. So we can make annual installments of about $10000 ,so put that in your budget.Too much? Well maybe we can get by if we reduce the debt. say just 50%, to a more manageable number. That will reduce our annual debt payment to $5000.Of course we can only squeak by doing this if we dont add more debt.How likely is that?
Remember we owe this money ,it must be paid to individuals here and abroad and countries like China,and teacher and union retirement funds etc. I dont think they will accept an IOU.So start saving and planning because you will have to pay this, in addition to your current federal,state and local taxes.
I know , you don't like it and want an easy way out , like say cutting government spending.Clearly half our spending is mandatory for such things as medicare,food stamps,social security,and interest on that debt.Which one do you want to slash? Still looking for an easy way out ? Here is one, lets take the money out of the defense budget and the cost of those stupid wars. OK and here is what happens. To pay off one half our debt in 15 years we will have to cut the defense budget by 67%.Feel better and safer now.?

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

I agree completely with our president's position that controlling the rapid increase in health care costs is very critical to controlling our debt and to improving our economic future.Health care costs have been increasing too fast,are a drag on the economy and threaten future growth and employment.Unfortunately I just don,t get the feeling that our new health care bill will do much to contain future increases and I am certainly confused how the claims are that it will save billions and cost billions.
One idea put forth during the health care debate was a fat tax but it fell flat..I think the feedback on this idea was fast and furious and the politicians caved quickly as they so often do.It makes sense to me.We have a serious problem with obesity in this country and it is costing all of us dearly. Over one third of our citizens are obese.It is a serious problem that is costing us dearly.Obesity leads to many problems which are expensive ie joint problems, heart failure heart attack,and the worst one diabetes with all its associated bad affects.There are numerous studies that peg the cost of obesity at 2000 to 4000 per year for the individual and 300 to 400 billion dollars a year for the healthcare system.These costs are growing so rapidly that it could easily reach the point where it will overwhelm our system and our ability to pay for it.It may well be that the rapid raise in health insurance rates is is driven by the same rapid increase in obesity rates.We may just be trying to fix the wrong problem .
We have seen that tobacco tax,public awareness and education have had very positive results in reducing smoking rates and we must do the same for obesity. We have for years used the sin tax to reduce the consumption of tobacco and alcohol and it makes perfect sense to apply the same to fat and sugar.This is not government intrusion into our lives,certainly not near as much so as mandated insurance.If we tax fat and sugar,we have a choice and I love taxes that are chosen.If an individual goes to a pop machine and a coke costs $1.00 while a diet coke costs $1.15 and that person is on a tight budget which will he purchase? He still has a choice and this is not intrusion,it is being smart.
If we institute a fat tax,all those high sugar drinks,absurdly high calorie fast foods will generate alot of tax revenue which would be well spent supporting the health care system and those who can not afford it.If we don,t do something soon our country will not be able to afford it.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I attended public school in a big midwest city and feel I received a wonderful,first rate education and was well prepared for college.I had first rate teachers who were enthusiastic, creative,dedicated and really cared about us. They were severely underpaid then as they are now.They shaped my future and next to parents are the most important influence one could have.We need good teachers as much today as they prepare our kids for the future.
We have the best universities in the world yet our public schools are failing.Why is that? I dont know for sure but have a strong suspicion that government has something to do with it. I looked at the Department of Education web site and budget and it is very vague and loaded with programs that cost billions for such programs as "increase awareness of ....." What is it and why does it cost so much? I have a feeling that the more programs and more spending that the Dept. of Ed has, the poorer results we get. The Dept. does administer grants and scholarships which no doubt have good results but one must question their overall contribution to public education.
Schools are administered at the state and local levels.We have a federal dept ,a state dept and the local dept.I bet there is a lot of duplication,waste and make work policies that create overhead and do little to improve education.I have seen several news reports of special programs where individual schools were improved dramatically.We should learn from this and apply it all over.The first thing these programs did was change almost everything ,especially the administration . This is not an expensive program, just a change in the way of doing business. This is what we need nationally.It is no longer business as usual.We need a complete change, not more money.

Monday, October 11, 2010

I am very offended by the political adds that are now reaching their peak.It drives me nuts and I sure hope most feel the same.I hope we all know that they are distortions at best and lies at worst. They are intended to play on our emotions and have the underling assumption that Joe voter is an uniformed,ignorant,low I.Q,easily influenced easily frightened idiot.
Tonight I watched two adds that claimed the opponent;

. voted to send jobs to China .voted for a runaway debt .paid for the debt by raiding social security .wants to make social security illegal .wants to put old people in jail for collecting social security[it even shows a little old lady behind bars]

So does anyone believe this crap.When was that bill voted on that legislated to send jobs to china?Was there a separate bill to send jobs to mexico or was it a rider?.When will we vote on the bill to send jobs to india. and why isnt there a bill to bring jobs back here? Wouldnt it be cheaper to pay grandma social security than to incarcerate her? Haven't we been raiding social security since LBJ? Get the point?

The sad fact is that they must give results since we see them every election cycle and they spend so much money on them. This being the case then we must conclude that our politicians have as low opinion of us as we do of them and I approve this message.
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Saturday, October 9, 2010

When will washington, and especially the current administration figure out that government is not the magic bullet to fix the economy? The last jobs report showed big losses in government employment levels, which isn,t all bad and certainly not a surprise. One response was to create a new agency with some stupid name like technology for america,to match what community colleges teach to what business needs.
This is so off target it bewilders me. One would assume that community colleges match their curriculum to the needs of the local economy. Is it not why they are in business? Further one would presume that the students who attend these colleges have a pretty good idea of what training skills offered by the colleges are in demand and offer the best chances for employment.
Do we really need another Washington bureaucracy to do what is already being done in the market place?This is yet one more instance in which out government believes that it can do a better job than the private sector.The government again thinks it can better chart our future than we can ourselves.This administration has no idea what is happening in the real world.It has no faith in the free economic system,no faith in individuals making good decisions for themselves,and thinks the profit motive is evil and destructive. This is really no surprise.The current administration cabnet and advisors have no real world experience.Less than 7% have no experience in the private sector as compared to an average of 47 % in all previous ones.That means that the misguided idiots making decisions for us have never had to meet a payroll, punch a time clock,join a union,or actually perform a job where performance actually mattered and poor performance resulted in unemployment.And they have spent their life spending other peoples money.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

The current debate about the fate of the Bush tax cuts has created self destructive behavior.I get a real kick when one group charges that the other is not paying its 'fair share ' yet no one seems to have the answer as to what is "fair" and who has the power to determine fairness.

It is certain that there is unfairness in the tax codes.This is generally a result of our lawmakers attempting to promote an industry, sector,or group which they feel is in the best interest of our collective good. Other times it is political payback which does not serve us well. We all tend to agree that our tax code is unfair to some, beneficial to others and way too complex and full of special breaks for many.

The poor attack the rich saying they dont pay their fair share, dont spend, dont create jobs, inherited their money don't deserve their station in life.The rich attack the poor saying that they milk the system , are lazy ,dont want a job,prefer to collect benefits and do nothing productive.These kind of attacks are both true and not true and certainly do not lead to a productive outcome for all of us.In defense of both sides. Most rich do pay a lot of taxes , do create jobs, do invest in growth,take risks and work hard. Most of the poor do not like or want government assistance, are often ashamed to do so, would much prefer to have a job, and do pay payroll taxes.It is just not fair to attack either group.On the other side there are rich who feel entitled and do not contribute to our society and there are poor who do think they are entitled to be supported and have no desire to be productive. Fortunately I think these two groups are not the majority of their respective groups.

I think the big difference between both groups is education and personal values.It is obvious that higher education,either technical skills or college education lead to higher rewards.Like wise values instilled by our parents, teachers and life experiences instill a self discipline and drive that allows us to do better and achieve more.A very enlightening book The Millionaire Next Door concluded that the single most significant factor that determined the ability to become wealthy is not income but personal financial management.Thus it is not how much you make , rather how you spend and manage your money that is the best indicator of future financial stability. We are all better served if we quit engaging in this class warfare and set our course on a much more simplified tax system and rid ourselves of all the special goodies that our government puts in the tax codes to reward special interests.